A Tokyo Bender

Last summer while the Morning Benders toured Japan, Chris Chu, the indie pop band’s boyish frontman, turned the trip into a heritage tour. Chu was born near Tokyo but raised in California. “I’m soft-spoken and a little shy,” he says. ”And I just felt immediately like I related to people there.”

SLURPEES The band binged on ramen, sampling something like 25 different noodle joints. Chu says that for classic tonkotsu, or pork-bone ramen, Nantsuttei in Tokyo (3-26-20 Takanawa, Minato-ku; 011-81-3-5791-1355) “blew everything else out of the water.” They also swooned for the summertime staple tsukemen, or dipping ramen, the best of which they found at Fu-Unji (2-14-3 Yoyogi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; 011-81-3-6413-8480).

IN HOT WATER For a side trip, Chu and company set upon Nagano prefecture, home of the Japanese Alps. In lieu of skiing, off-season visitors enjoy “really beautiful hiking and onsen” (hot spring baths). In Shirahone, Chu says, “They have this kind of water that looks like milk. It just feels so good on your skin.”

TOP SHOP The denim outfitter Kapital is taking the Japanese obsession with Americana to new extremes: bonnets, embroidered button-downs and, Chu says, “also this early-American, pilgrim-looking fashion line that people are starting to wear.”

OPEN MIC Big Echo (7-14-12 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo; 011-81-3-5770-7700), a popular karaoke chain offering private rooms, also happens to be the name of the band’s sophomore album. “That’s my favorite karaoke place, by default,” Chu says. “You have Japanese teens singing Green Day and Nirvana.”
HIT THE MAT Chu took friends to Toki No Ma (2-3-14 Ebisu-Minami, 2nd Floor, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; 011-81-3-5722-8600), a sleek izakaya that serves local delicacies like horse sashimi. The back room is lined with tatami mats. “It’s sunken down and you take your shoes off,” Chu says. “It felt like we went through a time portal.”

PEACE OUT The Benders took lazy post-show strolls through the bohemian Nakameguro neighborhood. “It’s a cool blend of different aspects of Tokyo because it’s one stop from Shibuya, where you’d be in the heart of the city, and then there’s also the side that’s a lot mellower because you have a canal running through it.”